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The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, in a statement, expressed its strong opposition to a proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) which aims to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed deep alarm at the recent decision of the Japanese government to approve the release of tritium-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. 

Rev. Prof. Dr Fernando Enns, on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC), presented a prayer in an interfaith setting during the 7th Global Interreligious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution, held 9 March in Okinawa.

The National Christian Council in Japan, in a “Statement Regarding the Enactment of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” expresses a “strong sense of disappointment that we have arrived at this point with the Japanese government neither approving nor ratifying” the treaty.

On 6 August, a “Joint Interfaith Statement on the 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was released, reaffirming the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons pose.

August 2020 will mark 75 years since the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - attacks which devastated those cities and killed or injured several hundred thousands of people. Many more suffered for years afterwards, from having been exposed to the deadly radiation released into the air and water on those days.

Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network, spoke at the G20 Interfaith Forum, held 7-9 June in Tokyo. This year’s theme was “Peace, People, Planet: Pathways Forward.” About 2,000 participants attend the gathering, which precedes the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The interfaith forum submitted recommendations for G20 leaders.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reflected on the “10 Commandments of Food” during a Seminar on Food and Water for Life, on 4 May, in Hong Kong.

In the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership, based in Chicago, lifted up points of hope that peace will win in the end. In a 25 April message, Shanta Premawardhana, president of the institute, wrote that every person of every faith of every nation deserves to wake up in peace. “Every child deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and alive to the promise that each day brings,” Premawardhana wrote. “I'm sure you know that this is why we build Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in Sri Lanka.”

The WCC invites applications for a seminar on Youth and Racism Awareness in Asia, to be held in Osaka, Japan on 8-12 September 2019.

At a global conference on xenophobia in Rome, a panel of four religious leaders from, respectively, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic traditions, spoke candidly about how xenophobia can sometimes be woven deeply into the fabric of these traditions.

Chō Takeda Kiyoko passed away on 12 April at the age of 100. Throughout her many scholarly pursuits, she always strived to deepen her engagement with global ecumenical Christianity. The World Council of Churches released a tribute.

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

“As a professor of economics and economic ethics with a theological background, and as dean of the GEM school, I can say that pluralistic economics – getting new prominence as an international student initiative – is an attempt to challenge neo-liberal monolithic economics. It is time for new thinking about economics”, stated Prof. Martin Büscher, first chair for economics and business ethics at the Institute for Diakonia and Management at the Protestant University of Wuppertal/Bethel, Germany, at the conclusion of the Governance, Economics and Management School held in Hong Kong on 22 August-2 September.

The globalization of the world economy has not been an even process, and in many ways governance for the protection of capital has overtaken governance for the protection of human well-being. A recent Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management for an Economy of Life addressed this very asymmetry.

An economic system based on over-consumption and greed has become firmly rooted in today’s world and it is high time to change this paradigm by working for a new financial and economic architecture. The WCC together with the WCRC now convenes a first ever Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management for an Economy of Life, in Hong Kong SAR.

This year 6 and 9 August mark the 71st anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two Japanese cities destroyed by atomic bombs with a combined death toll estimated at more than 225,000 people.

When Stephen Sidorak speaks about “A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace to Japan on a Matter of Life and Death” his voice rings with passion, commitment and regret along with a yearning that nuclear weapons must never be used in anger again.